Kathianne
09-09-2019, 06:38 PM
I haven't talked much about my teaching experience last year, which I chose not to return to. It's tough because there were many kids that I liked a lot and we had good interactions and they appreciated what I was doing.
However, at the highest point the classes totaled 228 kids per week. One class had 44 students. All but one of my classes had average reading levels of 2.8-3.4. (That's 2nd and 3rd grade). Some were barely functional literates. For some reason, social studies didn't interest them. Go figure.
The one class that stood out had an average RL of 6.9, it was 7th grade so near level. No major problems in that class in spite of 7 special ed and 2 emotional disorder.
Those other classes? One 8th grade class had 2 fights break out during the year, I was punched accidentally by a kid that probably weighed 180. It stopped the fight immediately, the kid and class freaked. He was suspended, for 1 week. So was the other kid. Both were gangbangers, different gangs.
Other teachers had even more issues, but I admit to being more concerned about myself and what was being accomplished in my classes.
There was one special ed teacher for each grade. 3 teachers for social studies; 3 for science; 3 for math; and so one. I had 46 kids on IEPs or 504s. Needless to say, no support for those kids.
No full time counselor.
90 minute classes-math and LA every day. Social Studies and Science every other day.
Because of the two gang presence, all break times for the kids were highly monitored. No basketball, etc. during lunch periods or before school.
Still we had 2 kids threaten to shoot. 1 was a generalized online threat. The other was specific list of kids and teachers, (I didn't make the list). The first the police arrested within hours; the second made it to school, with gun and police following.
I could not make myself sign up in April, just could not do it. It was pretty late when I sent apps to the Catholic schools, got one offer, but all the way in Scottsdale and I'd just resigned my lease. So, looking for something else, but the takeaway here is do find out what your children's or grandchildren's schools are coping with.
Yes, dangerous kids remain-they may get an in-school suspension for a day or 5; after a certain number those can turn to out-of-school suspensions. I think in our district 3 out-of-school will eventually lead to expulsion-for the remainder of the school year. I lost 9 kids in the last 3 weeks of school. If those 9 had been gone from the beginning, the year may have been very different.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2019/09/09/parkland-school-shooting-discipline-andrew-pollack-column/2221300001/
OPINION
The lax disciplinary policies that caused Parkland massacre may have spread to your school
Andrew Pollack, Opinion contributorPublished 3:15 a.m. ET Sept. 9, 2019
The Parkland shooter never should have been in the same school as my daughter. But his misbehavior and warning signs went unpunished and ignored.
...
A few weeks after the massacre, I asked whether the Broward school district’s disciplinary leniency policies enabled the shooter to slip through the cracks. Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie called questions like mine “fake news” because, he said, the shooter had never been referred to the school district's PROMISE diversionary program “while in high school.” The program allows students who commit certain misdemeanors to avoid getting involved with the criminal justice system.
Later, the news broke that he had been referred to PROMISE while in middle school. But the superintendent’s carefully crafted denial obscured the unmistakable fact that the school district’s failure to properly handle the shooter happened by design.
The most avoidable school shooting
The confessed shooter allegedly threatened to kill other students and threatened to rape. He threatened to shoot up the school, according to the sheriff's office. Classmates said he brought knives and bullets to school. He wrote hideous racial slurs on his backpack. He carved swastikas in the lunchroom tables.
But the assistant principals at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School didn’t have him arrested. Rather, they simply banned him from bringing a backpack to school and frisked him every day, according to the sworn testimony of the security guard who searched him, for fear he’d bring a deadly weapon and kill.
Broward’s policies allowed juveniles convicted of crimes as serious as murder and rape to go back into normal classrooms. Broward’s “Policy 5006” said that referring serious felonies like sexual assault and arson to the police was optional. Principals were trained to not cooperate with law enforcement, refusing to even tell officers whether suspected felons were on campus.
Disorder and violence ran and seem to still run rampant. A 2019 poll of Broward teachers conducted by the Broward Teachers Union found that 50% feared for their personal safety in the past two years and 13% had been assaulted in the current school year. Only 18% of teachers believe that if a student assaults them, he will be expelled or sent to a special school; just 39% expect that the student would even be suspended. (Three participants in the poll expected an arrest, compared with seven participants who would expect the student to be given a treat.)
...
According to a recent national poll, more than 70% of teachers believe that the decrease in suspensions in their school was at least somewhat due to a higher tolerance for misbehavior, and almost half believe it was due to underreporting issues.
About two-thirds of teachers in high-poverty schools say there is a student in their class who should not be and is chronically disruptive. In part, this is because of another dangerous policy: Students get labeled as having an emotional and behavioral disability and then receive an Individualized Education Program.
In middle school, the shooter held his students and teachers in a state of constant terror until the school could finally complete the complicated referral process to send him to a specialized school. He told a therapist at that specialized school that he dreamed of killing people and being covered in blood.
But after a few calm months, they decided not only to send him to school next to my beautiful daughter, but school officials even let him join the junior ROTC organization at school, although psychiatric notes said it was "not advised."
...
President Donald Trump repealed the Obama-era leniency policies at the federal level, but they aren’t going anywhere at the local level unless parents take action. If teachers tell you that these policies are causing problems, talk to your school board members and push back against them. The only way to keep kids safe at school is for parents to get informed, get involved and fix it.
However, at the highest point the classes totaled 228 kids per week. One class had 44 students. All but one of my classes had average reading levels of 2.8-3.4. (That's 2nd and 3rd grade). Some were barely functional literates. For some reason, social studies didn't interest them. Go figure.
The one class that stood out had an average RL of 6.9, it was 7th grade so near level. No major problems in that class in spite of 7 special ed and 2 emotional disorder.
Those other classes? One 8th grade class had 2 fights break out during the year, I was punched accidentally by a kid that probably weighed 180. It stopped the fight immediately, the kid and class freaked. He was suspended, for 1 week. So was the other kid. Both were gangbangers, different gangs.
Other teachers had even more issues, but I admit to being more concerned about myself and what was being accomplished in my classes.
There was one special ed teacher for each grade. 3 teachers for social studies; 3 for science; 3 for math; and so one. I had 46 kids on IEPs or 504s. Needless to say, no support for those kids.
No full time counselor.
90 minute classes-math and LA every day. Social Studies and Science every other day.
Because of the two gang presence, all break times for the kids were highly monitored. No basketball, etc. during lunch periods or before school.
Still we had 2 kids threaten to shoot. 1 was a generalized online threat. The other was specific list of kids and teachers, (I didn't make the list). The first the police arrested within hours; the second made it to school, with gun and police following.
I could not make myself sign up in April, just could not do it. It was pretty late when I sent apps to the Catholic schools, got one offer, but all the way in Scottsdale and I'd just resigned my lease. So, looking for something else, but the takeaway here is do find out what your children's or grandchildren's schools are coping with.
Yes, dangerous kids remain-they may get an in-school suspension for a day or 5; after a certain number those can turn to out-of-school suspensions. I think in our district 3 out-of-school will eventually lead to expulsion-for the remainder of the school year. I lost 9 kids in the last 3 weeks of school. If those 9 had been gone from the beginning, the year may have been very different.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2019/09/09/parkland-school-shooting-discipline-andrew-pollack-column/2221300001/
OPINION
The lax disciplinary policies that caused Parkland massacre may have spread to your school
Andrew Pollack, Opinion contributorPublished 3:15 a.m. ET Sept. 9, 2019
The Parkland shooter never should have been in the same school as my daughter. But his misbehavior and warning signs went unpunished and ignored.
...
A few weeks after the massacre, I asked whether the Broward school district’s disciplinary leniency policies enabled the shooter to slip through the cracks. Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie called questions like mine “fake news” because, he said, the shooter had never been referred to the school district's PROMISE diversionary program “while in high school.” The program allows students who commit certain misdemeanors to avoid getting involved with the criminal justice system.
Later, the news broke that he had been referred to PROMISE while in middle school. But the superintendent’s carefully crafted denial obscured the unmistakable fact that the school district’s failure to properly handle the shooter happened by design.
The most avoidable school shooting
The confessed shooter allegedly threatened to kill other students and threatened to rape. He threatened to shoot up the school, according to the sheriff's office. Classmates said he brought knives and bullets to school. He wrote hideous racial slurs on his backpack. He carved swastikas in the lunchroom tables.
But the assistant principals at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School didn’t have him arrested. Rather, they simply banned him from bringing a backpack to school and frisked him every day, according to the sworn testimony of the security guard who searched him, for fear he’d bring a deadly weapon and kill.
Broward’s policies allowed juveniles convicted of crimes as serious as murder and rape to go back into normal classrooms. Broward’s “Policy 5006” said that referring serious felonies like sexual assault and arson to the police was optional. Principals were trained to not cooperate with law enforcement, refusing to even tell officers whether suspected felons were on campus.
Disorder and violence ran and seem to still run rampant. A 2019 poll of Broward teachers conducted by the Broward Teachers Union found that 50% feared for their personal safety in the past two years and 13% had been assaulted in the current school year. Only 18% of teachers believe that if a student assaults them, he will be expelled or sent to a special school; just 39% expect that the student would even be suspended. (Three participants in the poll expected an arrest, compared with seven participants who would expect the student to be given a treat.)
...
According to a recent national poll, more than 70% of teachers believe that the decrease in suspensions in their school was at least somewhat due to a higher tolerance for misbehavior, and almost half believe it was due to underreporting issues.
About two-thirds of teachers in high-poverty schools say there is a student in their class who should not be and is chronically disruptive. In part, this is because of another dangerous policy: Students get labeled as having an emotional and behavioral disability and then receive an Individualized Education Program.
In middle school, the shooter held his students and teachers in a state of constant terror until the school could finally complete the complicated referral process to send him to a specialized school. He told a therapist at that specialized school that he dreamed of killing people and being covered in blood.
But after a few calm months, they decided not only to send him to school next to my beautiful daughter, but school officials even let him join the junior ROTC organization at school, although psychiatric notes said it was "not advised."
...
President Donald Trump repealed the Obama-era leniency policies at the federal level, but they aren’t going anywhere at the local level unless parents take action. If teachers tell you that these policies are causing problems, talk to your school board members and push back against them. The only way to keep kids safe at school is for parents to get informed, get involved and fix it.